Ganesh Kumar Gupta, Chairman, Aakash Textiles Exports & Vijay Silk House Group, Mumbai, has won the elections for the post of Vice President at FIEO (Federation of Indian Exporters Associations). He defeated Amit Goyal, MD, Sarju International Limited, Mumbai, by 16 votes, and will become the President of FIEO after 7 months (once the tenure of current President is over).
As many top textile and apparel export houses had the voting rights, the contest was a closely-watched one. While Gupta got 293 votes, Amit managed to get 277 only. A total of 1,012 companies had the voting right but only 570 casted their votes. Ganesh feels that it is the ‘victory of experience’ and selection of the better person, who can work to promote export from the country.
Ganesh has earlier served as President of FIEO; Chairman – Textile Committee; Chairman – Synthetic & Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC); and was associated with many such trade bodies. It is also being said that he had support from S C Ralhan, (current) President of FIEO; M Rafique Ahmed, Ex-President – FIEO; and many such dignitaries, while Amit Goyal, who is closely associated with AEPC, had support of almost 10 Export Promotion Councils (EPCs), like AEPC itself, PDEXCIL, ISEPC, CAPEXIL, Wool Industry Export Promotion Council, and EPC for EOU & SEZ. Both the candidates went digital for this contest as they were campaigning through their websites.
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Talking to Apparel Resources, Ganesh said, “I was confident about my win but was expecting a bigger margin,” adding, “As our overall export is falling from past 18 months, export fraternity was aware about selecting an experienced person who is more vocal when it comes to interacting with the Government on critical issues.”
On the hurdles being faced by apparel exporters of the country, Ganesh averred, “We have to make sure that interest of fabric exporters should not get affected on the name of apparel export or vice-versa.” He further opined that both – Indian exporters and the Government need to be more aggressive on this front. “Lot of work needs to be done…, like setting up centres in overseas markets to help increase export from the country,” he underlines.
Congratulating Ganesh on his victory, Ashok Rajani, Chairman, AEPC said, “We were expecting that if Amit would win, garment export will be on priority, nonetheless we have same expectations from Ganesh as well.”
Apparel Resources also tried reaching Amit for his comments, but he was not available.
Bharat Tex Special Report 2026 
